Office for Environmental Programs - Theses
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ItemThe Carbon Farming Initiative (CFI) and Indigenous community-based natural and cultural resource management: a case study of the Fish River Savannah Burning Methodology Project( 2013)The Carbon Farming Initiative (CFI) represents a significant opportunity for Indigenous land owners and managers in Australia. This paper explores this opportunity through a specific case study of the Fish River Fire Project, the first and currently only approved CFI project on the Indigenous estate, and its broader reference to other potential Indigenous projects. This analysis is in terms of both the practical viability of the CFI as an opportunity to support Indigenous caring for country initiatives, and as a real means to allow Indigenous people to meet their own defined values, aspirations and lifeways. It is concluded that a number of key areas must be further addressed, and recommendations followed, so as to ensure that Indigenous rights and interests in this emerging environmental market are fully respected. These refer in particular to local ownership of CFI projects, and broader institutional support to ensure Indigenous aspirations and obligations can potentially coexist with commercial viability.
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ItemAn inquiry into the metaphysics of the Yasuni-ITT( 2014)A controversial initiative proposed by the Ecuadorian Government in 2007 aimed to support the protection of a biodiversity rich area within a national park designated for oil extraction. The 'Yasuni-ITT' proposed to leave millions of barrels of crude oil underground, if the economic loss in doing so for the country could be offset by international monetary contributions. In August 2013 the president rescinded the initiative due to insufficient collected funds. At present the controversy continues: the government has announced a decision to extract oil in this fragile region of the Ecuadorian Amazon rain forest bringing unrest to the sector of the population which does not want to drill oil in this biodiverse region. This paper tells the story of the metaphysics -based on Michael Bonnnett's concept (Bonnett 2003) of metaphysics - of the Yasuni-ITT and how this cast the future of the initiative. By means of Grounded Theory and Hermeneutics, this paper analyses Yasuni-ITT related information using several sources of media such as audio-visual media, digitalised books, book chapters, magazine articles, news articles, NGO publications, official government documents, publications in scientific journals, social media texts and technical documents in order to find the singular modes of 'Being' (Latour 2013) on which the Yasuni-ITT has been spoken about. The findings of this research, however, are not to explain the failure of the initiative, but to inform the existence of the different 'Yasunis' encountered in the revised literature. Through document analysis of the many ways in which 'Yasuni-ITT' has been spoken about, this paper demonstrates the degree to which a 'political' shift manifests the kind of metaphysics Bonnett has in mind.
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Item"Net gain" and offsets in Victoria: implementation of native vegetation policy under the Planning and Environment Act 1987( 2007)There is increasing enthusiasm for the use of biodiversity offsets as a conservation tool. There has, however, been little evaluation of their actual implementation. This paper considers biodiversity offsets in the context of the critique of "command and control" regulation and proposals for market based approaches to biodiversity conservation, examining their potential advantages and pitfalls. The actual implementation of a biodiversity offsetting scheme is considered with reference to implementation of native vegetation policy in Victoria, including the interpretation and application of that policy and associated planning scheme provisions by the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal. This analysis of the implementation of "net gain" under the Planning and Environment Act 1987 (Victoria) shows that the potential of biodiversity offsetting mechanisms can be undermined by a lack of strategic planning mechanisms, absence of clearly defined and upheld priorities for avoiding clearing of vegetation in the first place, and failures to monitor and enforce offsets. However some of the issues identified cannot be explained as simple failures in implementation. The issues arising in Victoria also illustrate some of the inherent problems with designing and implementing biodiversity offsetting schemes and the limitations of such schemes as biodiversity conservation mechanisms.